Tremors: the cheap little Flash game.

(and yes, I really did learn the tuba)

I am cautiously approving. I don’t think that Moffat has an idea of the Doctor as stone-cold action hero (fisticuffs and dramatic firing of pistol aside), but the eleventh doctor certainly seems more actively inclined than some Doctors (and frankly if you’re going to cast Matt “I am older than twelve” Smith as the Doctor, you might as well make his Doctor be active) and that seems a nice change of pace.

On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that in that brief one-minute montage Moffat promised to reference or refeature every single plot he’s contributed to the previous seasons of Doctor Who barring a child in a gasmask saying “are you my mummy,” and that’s always a bit of a worrying sign even if the ideas were good ones. Then again, he’s never written about the Doctor versus swordfighting vampires before, and… swordfighting vampires! Versus the Doctor! How can you not be willing to give that a go?

By my count there were 299 pairs dances amongst the second seasons of the Canadian and Australian So You Think You Can Dance plus the fifth and sixth seasons of the American version. (I also saw a good chunk of So You Think You Can Dance Netherlands, but nothing from it was going to make any top-whatever list, frankly.) With the British version finally starting up in 2010, there will be four seasons of this show airing in English-speaking countries every year minimum until the whole shebang goes under, which hopefully is a long way away, even if Nigel Lythgoe is terminally irritating.

So here are the best twenty dances from this year’s four seasons of English-speaking SYTYCD.

But… before we begin, an honorable mention for my favourite routine of the year, which was Lamb and Timomatic’s cha-cha from week 2 of the Australian show. I can’t in good faith rank it amongst the best of the year, for a bunch of reasons: Timomatic’s Latin moves are inconsistent at best, the choreo is more a melange of cha-cha, samba and salsa than it is a straight cha-cha, and they bobble a few points (there’s a pretty obvious handhold search early on, for example). But I still really like this one more than any of the others despite technical issues, mostly because it’s got a clever, vivacious spirit to it that I appreciate.

Oh, and I might as well throw in Don’s dance-for-your-life solo from the Aussie winnowing week because who knows when I’ll have an excuse to post it.

All right! Onto the list proper.

continue reading "The Best of So You Think You Can Dance 2009"

I’ve tried many, many times to increase my juggling ability beyond “three balls for about forty seconds” and never been able to manage it.